Broadway and Stow in Which? UK's best towns and villages

Lower and Upper Slaughter was top of the Cotswolds crop with a destination score of 77 per cent according to Which? 

Broadway and Stow were also featured in Which? UK's best towns and villages, showing the broader appeal of the region.

ANICENT: Stow-on-the-Wold, St Edward's Church, the door said to have inspired JRR Tolkien's Doors of Durin in The Lord of the Rings (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

Broadway scored 71 per cent,  Stow-on-the-Wold 70 per cent, Burford 70 per cent and Bourton-on-the-Water 68 per cent.

Broadway scored 4 out of 5 for its scenery and 5 out of 5 for its attractiveness and 2 out of 5 for its shopping and 1 out of 5 for peace and quiet. 

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The Cotswolds, which covers around 800 square miles, is known throughout the world for its distinctive honey-coloured stone and rolling hills and straddles Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Wiltshire.

The destination score combines overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend.

The two best small towns in the UK are within an hour-and-a-half drive of each other – in the neighbouring counties of Somerset and Wiltshire.

More than 9,000 Which? members rated the inland towns and villages they'd visited, with the top spots going to Wells in Somerset and Avebury in Wiltshire.

They were followed by other highly rated towns in every corner of the UK – from Scotland to Dorset – and North Wales to the Lake District.

They may be geographically smaller than many destinations but they pack a lot into a small space.

Here is the list showing the destination scores

(1) Wells (83 per cent)

(2) Avebury (82 per cent)

(3) Corfe Castle (80 per cent)

(4) Port Sunlight (80 per cent)

(5) Grasmere (79 per cent)

(6) Lavenham (79 per cent)

(7) Llangollen (79 per cent)

(8) Ludlow (79 per cent)

(9) Stamford (79 per cent)

(10) Cartmel (78 per cent)

(11) Church Stretton (78 per cent)

(12) Crickhowell (78 per cent)

(13) Ironbridge (78 per cent) 

(14) Melrose (78 per cent)

(15) Arundel (77 per cent) 

(16) Grassington (77 per cent)

(17) Inveraray (77 per cent)

(18) Keswick (77 per cent)

(19) Lower and Upper Slaughter (77 per cent)

(20) Pitlochry (77 per cent)

(21) Alnwick (76 per cent)

(22) Beddgelert (76 per cent)

(23) Great Malvern (76 per cent)

(24) Hutton Le Hole (76 per cent)

(25) Betws-y-Coed (76 per cent)